


let no man tear asunder

by DarchangelSkye



Category: Bandom, Real Person Fiction, Rock Music RPF, Trench - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: (why didn't I put that tag earlier I are dumbass), @ Tyler release the Trench Bible you coward, Alternate Universe - Dema, Alternate Universe - Trench (Album), Banditos - Freeform, Blessings, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, DEMA (Twenty One Pilots), Dema!verse, Fire, Handfasting, Holding Hands, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Photography, Love, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Security, Sleepy Cuddles, Symbolism, Team as Family, Trench!verse, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, it's my fanfic and I get to choose the worldbuilding, unique wedding ceremony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:08:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25727173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarchangelSkye/pseuds/DarchangelSkye
Summary: "You an' me. It'd be a ritual for us. So at least whatever happens, we know we're bound."Tyler felt his stomach tighten; he'd witnessed enough painful 'rituals' to last a lifetime. "Not exactly a legal binding-""Something doesn't have to be legal to be the right thing."
Relationships: Josh Dun/Tyler Joseph
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	let no man tear asunder

**Author's Note:**

> plot bunny from [this](https://keons.tumblr.com/post/184695079108/) post and of course much inspiration from the ['alternate' Trench cover](https://twitter.com/top__today/status/1125465598484467712) mwahaha

"We could do it, y'know." Josh's voice was low and gentle with warm breath on the back of his neck in the early morning hours, hours that were so chilled everyone huddled close in their respective tents.

Tyler had been back in Trench for about a week, rarely leaving his and Josh's tent except to eat and tend to hygiene. This might have been his longest streak of freedom so far, but every moment his nerves were on fire with the fear that this would be the last. Add to that the painful memories that woke him in the middle of the night, he much preferred to stay by Josh where he was (relatively) safe. His angel, his savior, and now lovingly spooned against him and basically asking for his hand in marriage.

"You an' me. It'd be a ritual for us. So at least whatever happens, we know we're bound."

Tyler felt his stomach tighten; he'd witnessed enough painful 'rituals' to last a lifetime. "Not exactly a legal binding-"

"Something doesn't have to be legal to be the right thing."

Oh, he was too correct about that.

"I do love you," Josh continued, his soft voice almost a plea, even if Tyler knew if this were a perfect world where they were 100% safe the question wouldn't need to be asked twice.

"I love you too," Tyler turned to be looking Josh in the eye. For someone who carried so much responsibility his eyes were so soft. The balance of strength and love was awe-inspiring and would be terrifying if he honestly didn't trust Josh with all his heart.

A heart that he'd already given.

"I'm not tryin' to pressure you, Ty, you can say no. I just-"

Any more of Josh's rambling was cut off by a kiss to the nose, and the young man smiled. Josh had never pressured Tyler, he loved him, saved him.

"I'm sayin' yes," Tyler murmured and pulled his lover closer to him within their warm sleeping bag, heartbeats touching. "Is there anything you'll need me to do?"

Grin. "Love me a little before everyone else wakes up?"

He said yes to that, too.

***

The 'ceremony' happened late the following afternoon, timed so the camp dinner would be ready for afterwards. It wasn't a feast per se, no different from the usual food gathered in Trench, but the occasion much better than living in secrecy or planning a rescue mission sent an air of excitement crackling through the place the Banditos called home.

Tyler and Josh sat by the fire, the younger man's stomach flitting with what he hoped were good feelings. Back in Dema he would often have trouble telling the right feelings to have from the wrong ones. To calm himself he looked to his clutch of flowers, the bright yellow of protection and hope. The women of the camp insisted it wasn't a proper old-world-style ceremony without flowers, and to show that Tyler and Josh were equal in their relationship they both had a handful of the beautiful daisies.

The scent was nothing spectacular no matter how many times Tyler held the flowers to his nose and breathed them in, but it was fresh and comforting and _real_ , and that meant something. "So, um, whose exactly leading this thing?" he murmured to Josh. Given that Josh was the default leader of the Banditios, anyone else having this ceremony and it likely would've been him overseeing.

"You'll see," Josh grinned.

Soon the bustle stopped and the camp became quiet save for the crackling fire. Josh quickly sat up straight and Tyler followed suit. Whatever was happening now...

One of the women of the camp stepped forward, her hands clasped together and her pale hair given an almost unnatural glow by the fire. Tyler shivered at the formality.

"Do you enter this union of your own free will?" she asked in a voice loud enough for the entire camp to hear, but her tone so calm as the air.

Josh was the first to speak aloud with a clear and solid "Yes." Tyler shivered at how strong and sure the answer sounded and prayed no one was taking his momentary silence as apprehension. He hadn't had free will in so long...and this was a choice he really wanted to make.

"Yes," he finally answered just as clearly.

The woman smiled, held her hands out, palms up, and raised them slightly in the air. Tyler took his cue to stand when Josh did. He'd been taught back in Dema not to question of any the rules laid out for him, to stand and sit when ordered, not to think. But Trench meant choice, freedom, and family, even if it took a while to condition to all that again.

Two male Banditos stood on either side of the woman, one whose bandana tied back his hair and the other's around his neck. They each held a large branch that Tyler thought were unlit torches until he saw the ends were in yellow tape. He knew the group didn't exactly have an infinite supply of the stuff; every time someone had been taken back to Dema the tape would be forcibly removed from their clothing and destroyed. So not only did he feel sorrow over no longer being protected, he'd feel guilt over the tape having gone to waste yet again. In his darker moments as he dully stared at the florescent tubes in his room, he'd wonder why the Banditos even bothered.

The men walked away in opposite directions from the woman, tips of their branches dragging on the ground, and Tyler quickly realized they were forming a circle around him and Josh. He suppressed a shiver of memory, of suffocating ritualistic circles and sickeningly hypnotic chants.

When the Banditos had finished their paces the woman spoke up, "The circle has been cast, and you are now safe. Your extended family gives their blessings and love as your two hearts come together to beat in a single rhythm."

The campfire's flame appeared to lick higher in the air at that moment, and Tyler gasped softly and clutched to Josh's hand. Every time he'd seen that fire flickering down in the city square through his window, the signal that the Banditos had arrived to get people out, it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen next to the face of the brave man who loved him.

The woman stepped back, and four more Banditos stepped forward, two men and two women. Their hands each appeared to be cupped over small objects. "What's going on?" Tyler whispered out the corner of his mouth.

"Some more blessings. It's alright, you're safe," Josh whispered back and squeezed their hands still together. "Just don't let go."

The first woman approached with what Tyler now saw as a canister containing water from up the river that the camp used to drink and gather boiling water from, opposed to down the river which was used for bathing. Even in the summertime the river was always cold, but Tyler relished the sting against his tired skin.

"Your blessing from the west is the pure cleansing of the rain, the excitement of the raging river, and a commitment as deep as the ocean itself." She extended the canister first for Tyler to drink from, and in that moment it was the sweetest water he'd ever tasted. After Josh took his drink, the first man stepped forward with two feathers.

Even Josh hadn't been sure what to make of the vultures at first. Back in Dema they carried a grisly task and a foreboding air, but the one or two that would hang around the camp on occasion seemed to mind their own business. Tyler remembered once when a young Bandito, delirious from the heat, pointed into the distance at a bird and muttered about spies being everywhere, but that had to be impossible.

"Your blessing from the north is the solid foundation to build your lives and the stability to be found in each other," the man said said as he tucked the feathers into the breast pockets of Tyler and Josh's coats. Tyler didn't touch his feather, hesitant to break the ceremony's spell, and yet in that moment he couldn't help thinking of flying and freedom. He shifted his gaze to Josh, in love more than ever at seeing his serene smile. They were truly protected.

The second man approached the pair and he opened his palms to reveal two smooth, dark round stones that looked perfectly identical, even if Tyler knew that was impossible. But what was possible right now was the etching embedded in them revealed by the flicker of firelight, the symbol of their compass. There were more than a few capable artists in the camp, relying on charcoal and ash and moss graffiti and maybe a pencil the few times anyone who'd been rescued had managed to sneak one out, to spread the message. It wouldn't have been a major task for Josh to ask someone to engrave the mark.

"Your blessing from the east is the new beginning that comes each day with the rising sun, and communication of the heart, mind, body, and soul." He put the stones in the pair's pockets to rest with the feathers, and Tyler now felt the gentle grounding of coming back down to earth where the one person who knew him better than anyone, inside and out, would be by his side as long as it took.

He rubbed his thumb in Josh's palm, grateful when the gesture was returned. In his love and hope he now felt _alive_ , in pure defiance of everything the Bishops stood for, and when he'd tell Josh later after this was all done, curled in their tent together in privacy, the young man would tell him that Tyler had finally broken through and he couldn't be happier. But for now he stood silent with a peaceful smile, waiting for if there were any other blessings coming their way.

And that happened when the second woman approached, hand clutching a length of fabric that first appeared to be rope but the flicker of firelight revealed some yellow as well. Tyler briefly mused whose bandana that once had been. Fabric didn't go to waste in the camp; men and women alike received instruction on cleaning and repairing their clothing and tents and now he was seeing where the bits that had undergone maximum wear and tear had gone. Yet even if the fabric had been damaged before, it was now rebuilt into something strong.

"Your blessing from the south is the light of the heart, the heat of passion, and the warmth of a loving home," the woman laid the fabric over the wrists of their clasped hands, and either Tyler was imagining things or it was just as warm as clothes freshly dried in the sunshine. 

Josh gave the smallest of sniffs, and Tyler smiled softly at knowing it was a sound of joy. Even with Josh's stoic manner and expression when he spoke of plans with the other Banditos or was in the midst of a mission, he wasn't afraid of melting.

The woman who'd given the cord stepped back, the yellow material still looped over their clasped hands, and the blonde who had begun the ceremony approached the pair once more. Again the campfire's flame flickered to make shadows dance on her face.

"Just like the fire lights our way, you are one united light burning in the darkness," she said as she gripped the ends of the cord to begin tying a slow, loose knot over their held hands. "Your blessings will be the tools to maintain your light, the infinite energy of a love you both deserve."

And it was Tyler's turn to sniff as he watched the knot continue to be fastened. Love didn't matter in Dema, unless you counted the sick love of sacrificing yourself for the cause. You were alone in the city no matter how many were in your district. But in Trench, no one was alone with each other to lean on and love how you wanted. _I deserve their love,_ echoed in his head.

Soon the woman finished tying the cord, an intricate pattern of loops that would be sustained when it was slipped off their wrists later and Josh would set it in a high place of honor in their tent. Tyler eyed the shape of the loops, pondering for a moment which one of those shapes was supposed to be the symbol for infinity, never mind why he was suddenly focusing on that when Josh's hand was still holding tightly to his and the pulses in his wrist and chest were fluttering like mad and the woman said something his ears didn't quite catch except for "together" and soft and happy sounds arising from the Banditos surrounding them-

With his free hand Josh reached to gently grip his sleeve and pull him close, and just as Tyler was trying to feel his heartbeat he was turned around so they could face their fellow Banditos, their family, and only then were the happy sounds finally registering as cheers like victory. "Oh my gosh," he muttered and widened his eyes at the group who were there for them, and the realization he said something as innocent as _that_ made him chuckle and burrow his happily-red face by Josh's temple.

The free hand cupped on his face and an innocent kiss touched the corner of his lips. "It's you an' me now, Ty. We did it," Josh whispered.

He nodded and squeezed their still-bound hands like he hadn't already memorized that touch for forever, for no matter what.

**Author's Note:**

> handfasting ceremony vows snipped and rearranged and Frankenstein'd from [this Learn Religions article](https://www.learnreligions.com/sample-handfasting-ceremony-2562005) as I opted not to read what else is in the Handfasting tag lest I accidentally copy someone


End file.
